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Zach Sang Show

David Henrie Talks ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place,’ Selena Gomez, and Directing Mel Gibson

Zach Sang Show

Sangasong, LLC

Tv & Film, Music

4.7658 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

David Henrie — best known as Justin Russo on Wizards of Waverly Place — joins us on the couch for the first time to talk all things Wizards Beyond Waverly Place Season 2. The new series reunites Henrie and Selena Gomez as adult versions of their beloved characters, while introducing a whole next-gen cast of young wizards.


Gomez pops in for a few episodes each season — and yes, David teases what’s up with her in Season 2 — but she’s also been instrumental behind the scenes, helping bring the reboot to life from casting to marketing. We dive into their real-life friendship, how the revival came together, and what it’s like for Henrie — now a dad himself — to revisit the world that shaped his transition from teens to twenties. (Fun fact: he even wrote an episode back in the day.)


David opens up about navigating fame so young, avoiding the pitfalls so many child stars face, and how he thinks the industry can do better. Now 36, he’s also carving out a strong directing career with projects like the coming-of-age film This Is the Year and the horror-comedy Monster Summer, starring Oscar-winner Mel Gibson.

We get into all of it — sitcoms, laugh tracks, Jake T. Austin, and the lost art of the multicam — plus so much more.



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.co.

0:05.5

com.

0:05.5

U.K.

0:06.2

slash Wondery.

0:07.5

That's audible.

0:08.1

dot code.

0:08.8

UK slash Wondery.

0:14.9

Hello, beautiful human.

0:18.2

I'm Zach.

0:18.7

That is Dan.

0:19.3

And today we welcome to the studio, an icon, a human being that you definitely know. You've seen him on Disney Channel. You've seen him as Justin Russo. He's a director. He's a producer. Say hello to David Henry. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Smells lovely in here. By the way, what is the scent that we have going? That's a good candle, right? Okay. This is all. It's called spiritual, and it's Palo Santo and what? One second. You're not going to be able to pronounce it. Vettiver. Ah, I thought it was sensing a little vetiver. I don't think it's perfect. No, complete. No, it's wrong. But it smells good.

0:55.1

It does smell good.

0:56.0

Thank you for being here. Of course. Happy to be here, guys. Thank you for having me. This is epic. No, you are, you're very interesting. Okay. Let's start off the bat. Like, I had no idea that when you were a kid on Wizards, you actually wrote an episode of the show. Yes, yeah, I think I'm still like the youngest. I was a teenager when I did that. And yeah, you know, I was always like, I was a kid actor. I was always very inquisitive. I always, I started when I was like nine, and I was just always asking questions. I wanted to know how the sausage was made. And so once I got on a Disney show and I was a serious regular, I was just always begging the writers to just sit in the room and see how it all came together and try to understand how it came together. And at one point, I don't know if they felt bad for me or what. They said I could start pitching. And so I'd sit on like the outside. And it's kind of a intense setting. You know, you got a round

1:45.7

table. All the writers are sitting on the round table. Then you have a whole other seats that surround,

1:50.6

whole other set of seats that surround the table. And that's where I was seated. And like those are like

1:55.8

the guys trying to get in to the table. And every so often you could like raise your hand and pitch.

2:02.4

And I got a couple moments where I could pitch. Some jokes got put in the scripts. And then slowly I was given a

2:07.6

chance to like get a spec script and they read it. And then I got an episode. Yeah, I started writing

2:12.8

for the show. Do you remember your first pitch? Oh, man, I wish it. It was a joke that was, it was a max joke. So it was a joke for the young kid on the show. And it was, it was so nervous to do it, right? Because, like, this is my first time I'm pitching. And like, if they don't laugh at this, it's like, oh, the actor, you know, is trying to be a writer. But it was a max joke. it was something about him screwing up, going up the stairs, doing a button hook,

3:10.1

turn it. I was really like, you know, he goes up the stairs, da da da da da da, da, da, da, he comes back in and says, bah, and beat, beat, big laugh. And I was like, oh, thank God. Like, it's the longest moment in my life. But yeah, man, I worked hard and I got a chance to, like, actually write and go behind the scenes. And that was my first spark of like just wanting to be involved in the creative process.

3:11.5

That was just a big deal for me.

3:14.6

And thankfully, that spark like continued forward.

...

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